Googlebot fraud (Fake crawlers, bot abuse & how to protect your site)
Learn how Googlebot crawls, renders, and indexes your site. See every crawler type, how crawl budget works, and the technical fixes that improve visibility.
More from Search Engine Land: Page 3
Microsoft Bing explains how duplicate content hurts AI search visibility
Duplicate or similar content on your site makes it hard for AI search engines to interpret your intent signals.
Your next customer might not be human: Designing journeys for people and AI agents
AI agents increasingly filter options and shape shortlists before people ever engage, shifting where visibility and influence are earned.
How to use broad match without losing control
Broad match now runs with Smart Bidding. Learn how drift happens, why it matters, and how to keep performance aligned with real intent.
Google vs. publishers: What the EU probe means for SEO, AI answers, and content rights
An antitrust case puts AI Overviews, opt-outs, and zero-click visibility under scrutiny amid growing debate over content use and attribution.
From SEO to GEO: How marketing leaders stay visible in AI-driven search
Here are four ways to evolve your SEO strategy and boost visibility in AI-powered search.
SEO gap analysis: How to find content and keyword gaps
Learn how to run an SEO gap analysis using Semrush to uncover keyword, content, link, and AI visibility gaps. Build clusters, boost topical authority, and turn insights into revenue-driving roadmaps.
New AI Visibility Awards spotlight brands thriving in AI-generated search results
Semrush’s new AI Visibility Awards reveal which brands are winning trust — and share of voice — in AI-generated search results.
Google adds location targeting controls to Demand Gen campaigns
Google added native location targeting controls to Demand Gen campaigns, giving advertisers more precise geo-targeting.
AI Overview fan-out rankings boost citation odds by 161%: Study
Analysis of 10,000 keywords shows pages ranking across Google AI Overview fan-outs account for over half of all citations.
Google explains JavaScript execution on non-200 HTTP status codes
Google noted that if the HTTP status code is non-200 (for example, on error pages with 404 status code), rendering might be skipped.
How Bayesian testing lets Google measure incrementality with $5,000
What’s often misunderstood about Google’s incrementality testing and how Bayesian models use probability to guide better decisions.
Apple will add more App Store search ads
Apple will add more App Store search ads in 2026, expanding inventory while keeping placements driven by relevance – not higher bids.
Why SEO annual plans fall apart – and how to build one that holds up
Annual SEO planning still works when it’s built for reality. Learn how to set goals, prioritize work, and execute quarter by quarter.
How to use AI to diagnose and improve search intent alignment
AI can act as a second set of eyes for content, helping evaluate intent signals, compare top results, and refocus underperforming pages.
Google fixed month-long delay with page indexing report
Google Search Console is once again sending out page indexing issue notifications as well.
Googlebot dominates web crawling in 2025 as AI bots surge: Report
Cloudflare data shows AI crawlers exploding, publishers blocking bots, and many platforms sending little traffic back.
Proxies for prompts: Emulate how your audience may be looking for you
As search shifts from keywords to prompts, learn how SEOs can use data proxies to understand AI search behavior and track visibility across platforms.
How to identify and fix AI hallucinations about your brand
Learn how to audit AI model outputs, apply entity markup, and reinforce accurate brand facts in Knowledge Graph data to correct AI hallucinations and protect your brand’s credibility.
LinkedIn opens up top-of-feed Reserved Ads to all managed advertisers
LinkedIn Reserved Ads let you lock in top-of-feed placement, boosting visibility, engagement, and predictable reach for B2B campaigns.
How to measure brand visibility in AI search (before you disappear)
Learn why good SEO practices—content, links, UX—still power visibility in AI search.
Google scraps unified pricing rules in Ad Manager after antitrust pressure
Google’s removal of unified pricing rules lets publishers set bidder-specific floors again, which could cause a pricing shift in programmatic auctions.
Google Search adds read more links to search result snippets
Not all, but many of the search result snippets contain read more links that take you to sections of a web page.
Google adds animation and image editing tools to Merchant Center’s Product Studio
Google's latest update gives merchants new ways to quickly animate, clean up, and enhance product images directly inside Merchant Center.
Google rolls out Gemini 3 Flash to AI Mode in Search globally
Google said AI Mode will deliver faster, smarter answers and tackle complex questions, comparisons, and planning with stronger reasoning.
Google’s Danny Sullivan: SEO for AI is still SEO
AI search is not changing SEO fundamentals. Google's Danny Sullivan says to keep doing things that will make you successful in the long term.
Google clarifies canonicalization with JavaScript
Google added a section on canonicalization best practices for JavaScript to the JavaScript SEO best practices document.
How to use Google’s Channel Performance report for PMax campaigns
See what the report actually reveals about PMax delivery, attribution, and asset performance – plus where the data still misleads.
How conversational AI is changing the economics of paid search
A closer look at how Microsoft Copilot uses conversational search to capture intent, reduce wasted spend, and improve ROAS.
4 marketing problems AI can actually solve right now
How serious marketing teams are using AI to move faster without cutting corners.
Google: Exact match keywords won’t block broad match in AI Max
Google clarified that exact keywords don’t serve ads in AIOs — but they also no longer prevent broad match keywords from triggering those placements.
Beyond blue links: Why traditional SEO is not enough in a zero-click world
Old SEO tactics built for rankings and clicks don’t work in AI Overviews and zero-click SERPs. Learn how to adapt with visibility-first SEO, entity optimization, and answer-ready content.
Google AI Overviews surged in 2025, then pulled back: Data
Semrush analyzed 10 million keywords and found volatility, more ads, stronger CTRs, and AI Overviews expanding beyond informational intent.
The enterprise blueprint for winning visibility in AI search
What it takes to operationalize entities and schema across large organizations, without breaking governance or increasing technical debt.
When Google’s AI bidding breaks – and how to take control
Google’s AI bidding can scale spend while eroding efficiency. Learn where to intervene to protect PPC performance.
A 3-tier framework for Shopify integrations that drive conversions
Not every Shopify integration delivers value. Learn how to sequence checkout, re-engagement, and optimization tools for revenue impact.
Google says doing optimization for AI search is ‘the same’ as doing SEO for traditional search
Build great sites, great content, for your users, according to Nick Fox, SVP of Knowledge and Information at Google.
Google fixes weeks-long Search Console Performance report delay
After several weeks of delayed data, the report now appears to be fixed, with delays of two to six hours instead of more than 70.
How to boost ROAS like La Maison Simons
A six-step guide to improving your ecommerce PPC strategy, inspired by a Canadian fashion leader.
Scalable local SEO practices
Break down scalable local SEO practices that hold up at scale — covering structure, templates, tooling, workflows, and performance tracking.